The invention relates to fire control and evacuation devices and, more particularly, to a system of telescoping fire retardant nozzles constructed in a suspendable personnel platform elevatable along the side of a high rise building for combating fire at any level thereof.
The conventional method of fighting and suppressing a fire in a high rise building is with built-in sprinkler systems and/or fire department personnel. Sprinkler systems have found much disfavor from aesthetic and economic standpoints. Usually, fire fighting equipment and men are simply rushed to a building in response to a fire alarm for extinguishing the combustion and extracting of survivors from the effected building levels. This conventional method is inefficient from the multiple standpoints of delay time between detection of the fire, effective personnel evacuation and adequate provision of suitable fire suppressant materials at high levels of the building. Occasionally, the location of the fire is an upper level of the building from which it is difficult, if not impossible, to simultaneously fight the fire and vacate trapped personnel.
Many conventional high-rise buildings are now constructed with glass window curtains comprising the bulk of the outside walls. The presence of such massive amounts of glass at such enormous heights renders inoperable conventional fire fighting techniques and equipment such as the historical hook and ladder truck. The glass, if at a low enough level, must first be broken to permit access. However, random glass shattering inwardly can seriously injure panic-stricken occupants. This problem is essentially negated by the fact that above certain levels outside access by fire fighters is virtually impossible by prior art methods. Fire department personnel must then rely on the elevator system of the building to provide access to higher levels and even then a fire on an intermediate floor can cut off access to an upper floor. In view of the established fact that sprinkler systems are not utilized in such skyscrapers for aesthetic and related reasons, the occurrence of a high level fire can be catastrophic.
It would be an advantage, therefore, to overcome certain of the problems, inconveniences and hazards of prior art apparatus and methods by providing an improved fire control and evacuation system which can be incorporated directly in conjunction with a highrise building. The fire control and evacuation system of the present invention is especially adapted for use in conjunction with "glass" skyscrapers and for fire occurring at any level of the building. An outside suspension platform is thus provided atop the building with means for safely piercing glass walls with automated fire suppressant nozzles. In this manner the magnitude of property damage can be reduced, trapped persons evacuated and the formidable fire hazard of modern skyscrapers substantially eliminated.